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Meet Joss Whedon’s ABC ‘S.H.I.E.L.D.’ Team

By now you know The Avengers was one of the biggest films of 2012 and one monster of a comic book movie. Where else, aside from within the pages of a Marvel comic book, have you ever seen such A-List super heroes together in one place? You’ve probably also heard that the director of Avengers, the legendary Mr. Joss Whedon has a vision for a TV show inspired by S.H.I.E.L.D. If you’re like me, you probably thought the reality of such a thing coming to fruition was a little too good to be true. We Marvel fans have been on a lucky streak. It has to end somewhere, right? Well, so far, so good. We’ve learned even more details about the ABC network project.

Now, in the comics the S.H.I.E.L.D. team is sort of militarized group of covert humans tasked with policing super heroes. They get around on their giant Helicarrier, which I believe also sometimes doubles as a prison for the super powered. I seem to recall an issue of X-men where the Canadian team, Alpha Flight guest starred and the two gangs had to fetch Sauron, a Savage Land mutate who looks a lot like a man-sized Pteranodon. He had just escaped the Helicarrier. At any rate, Nick Fury is in charge of the black ops group. He was acted by Samuel L. Jackson in The Avengers film and in the preceding flicks, like Iron Man and Thor.

These days S.H.I.E.L.D. stands for Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division. This is a modern update on the original acronym. You see, created by Stan “The Man” Lee, as many most popular Marvel heroes also were, S.H.I.E.L.D. has been around in print since 1965. Phew! Let’s not ask Nick Fury how old he is. We don’t want to incur his wrath.

So, here are the latest details about the show, which is still moving forward with a green light. Joss plans to write the live-action series with his brother Jed Whedon and Maurissa Tancharoen. Speaking of super heroes, don’t the names Joss and Jed sound like alter egos? Makes you wonder!

The Buffy creator has outlined some of the characters we can expect to meet as agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Let’s take a look.

SKYE | This late-20s woman sounds like a dream: fun, smart, caring and confident – with an ability to get the upper hand by using her wit and charm.

AGENT GRANT WARD | Quite the physical specimen and “cool under fire,” he sometimes botches interpersonal relations. He’s a quiet one with a bit of a temper, but he’s the kind of guy that grows on you.

AGENT ALTHEA RICE | Also known as “The Calvary,” this hard-core soldier has crazy skills when it comes to weapons and being a pilot. But her experiences have left her very quiet and a little damaged.

AGENT LEO FITZ and AGENT JEMMA SIMMONS | These two came through training together and still choose to spend most of their time in each other’s company. Their sibling-like relationship is reinforced by their shared nerd tendencies – she deals with biology and chemistry, he’s a whiz at the technical side of weaponry.

I won’t get my hopes up until the pilot airs. I mean we all saw what happened to the DC comics reboot of the Wonder Woman TV show. It was cancelled before the pilot ever aired. Sometimes a good show is even cancelled mid-season. So, we’ll have to wait and see.

My other concern is this: Will there be actual Marvel heroes making guest appearances on the show? The appeal of this series is that it’s based on Marvel comics, yet not a single super hero has been identified as appearing on the series. Will Samuel L. be making appearances? What about Coie Smulders? If the show centers on S.H.I.E.L.D. and makes up original mutants for the team to interact with, why give it the S.H.I.E.L.D. name at all? It could be any bunch of humans dealing with any bunch of super powered individuals. I think this will have to be more like Smallville to work. Fans want to recognize the names of the mutants that our team is sent in to police. Who knows, if this show really, really succeeds, maybe actors like Chris Hemswroth, Chris Evans, and Scarlet Johansson will put in cameos. That, true believers, would be a dream come true.

If I went even further with my wishlist, the S.H.I.E.L.D. TV series would keep the chronology of the films. I daresay Joss could introduce the character of Agent 13. She’s a certain blonde S.H.I.E.L.D. agent who is a relative of a certain lady from Captain America’s past. Introduce her on television, then graduate her character to one of the Captain America sequels. Wouldn’t that be something?

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About Sasha McBrayer

Sasha McBrayer is a fan of Marvel Comics, science fiction films and bright nail polish. A list of her published, short, speculative fiction stories can be discovered over at her blog: nikanors-inn.livejournal.com. To see her weekly movie review visit coastalcourier.com and click on "Showtime with Sasha".
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